A dying world
by Iggys-pyro-tribute-in-the-dark
Summary: After Angel. Itex has created a toxic pollution by mistake, the effects speed up global warming so the world is dying and will be destroyed in weeks. Can Max and the flock beat extreme global warming or have the scientists over-estimated them?
1. Chapter 1

It had been 2 days since Fang and his flock had left us. 2 days since I gave up on my baby Angel. 2 days since I stopped caring about anything.

"Miss?" Some girl who worked here asked.

I didn't answer her, I was barely aware she was there.

"My sister is sick, she can't hear you" Iggy lied.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. We were wondering how long you'd be staying here?" The girl asked, I could barely understand her because of her French accent.

"We're not sure, here's some money to cover the next few days" Dylan said, handing the girl a bunch of cash and the girl left, closing the door behind her.

Iggy sighed and sat down in a chair with his head in his hands. Dylan went back into the kitchen.

The past two days had been excruciatingly painful and quiet. No one dared make too much sound in fear of upsetting someone.

Nudge hadn't talked the past 2 days; she just sat in her room alone.

I was worried about Gazzy.

We were all depressed and none of us could really sleep at night.

Gazzy had dark rings under his eyes and his eyes were red. He hadn't cried the past 2 days, he was just emotionless. He just lay on his bed, never moving. When you called his name he didn't look over, he didn't say anything, he didn't move at all. He was like he was an empty shell, no one in there. A part of Gazzy had died with Angel.

Iggy was the most normal of us. He would talk sometimes, he tried to be a leader and help us, but even strong willed Iggy was having trouble coping and his normal optimistic, bubbly, fun mood was depressed and distant. He hadn't smiled in those 2 days, he hadn't laughed, and he was going downhill.

Dylan tried to keep us all together. Dylan talked to us, trying to get us to talk back. He cooked us meals, he put us to bed, he took care of us.

"Max?" Dylan asked, his warm hand on my shoulder.

I sat on the couch, staring out the window. Sometimes I would doze off and dream I could see Angel flying towards me. But then I'd wake up.

"You need to eat something" he said and my eyes flickered down to the bowl of soup he had in his other hand.

I looked back out the window and he sighed.

How could Fang leave? How could he just pick up and leave us at a time like this? Didn't he care? Didn't he mourn? Didn't he love us?

All around me everything was going wrong.

I remembered how we were at the E house with Jeb. We were innocent and ignorant to the war around us. We were free, we were together, we were happy.

And now look at us. Torn, broken, hurting, and even dead.

I hadn't cried yet. When we stopped looking for Angel, I didn't cry. When Fang left, I didn't cry. I was just nothing.

All of a sudden Dylan did something he hadn't done yet.

He put the soup down on the table and sat beside me.

He put his arms around me and pulled me into him and just held me.

I couldn't help it. I buried my head into his chest, and cried.

What started off as small quiet sobs, turned into full on crying.

Tears streamed down my face like a waterfall and high-pitched wailing came out of my mouth.

Dylan just held me and stroked my hair.

I heard Iggy get up and sit down on the other side of me and he rubbed my back between my closed wings. I saw Iggy was silently crying and I took his hand in mine and squeezed it.

I heard a small creak and Nudge tip toed out of her room to see what was going on. Through my tears I saw Iggy pull her over and wrap and arm around her and she rested her head on my shoulder and was crying to.

I heard a sniff and looked up to see Gazzy standing there in the middle of the room. His still dirty face and watery big blue eyes made him look so young and innocent.

"Max" he croaked and ran to me, tears flowing down his face.

I pulled him onto my lap and held him tight and cried into his hair. We all sat there just holding each other and crying. And finally, we were starting to live again.

**Fang's POV**

"Fang, we have to stop" Maya said again.

I didn't want to stop. If I stopped, I would think. If I thought, I would think of Max, of the flock, of Angel. I didn't want to think.

"Fang" Maya said standing in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. I couldn't even look at her.

"We've been walking for hours. We haven't slept in 2 days. We need to stop" she said.

I looked behind me to see the others. Ratchet was panting, holding his side painfully with a stitch. Holden was limping and leaning against Kate who was dirty faced and worn out. Star who was used to going such distances was looking emotionally tired and hadn't spoken in days.

"Fine. We'll make camp here" I said and heard everyone sigh with relief.

It was getting dark and a fire had been lit.

I sat by the fire, just staring into it.

Holden had been asleep for hours and Ratchet drifted off about an hour ago. Kate had fallen asleep half an hour ago, and about 10 minutes ago I heard the deep breathing of Star and knew she had fallen asleep.

Maya was laying on her side, not facing me and I didn't know whether she was asleep or not. She ignored me when she could, not wanting to upset me.

I laid down with my wings out. I laid on my back and it was a little uncomfortable but I didn't care.

I stared up at the sky and could see some stars coming out as the sun had just about disappeared.

I wondered what Max was doing. Was she ok? Was the flock ok?

A small tear escaped my façade and rolled down my face and fell into the dirt.

I noticed one of the stars was moving. My first though was it was an airplane, but it wasn't blinking. It wasn't shinning at all.

I sat up and looked at it through squinted eyes.

As it got closer I realised it was a person, with wings.


	2. Chapter 2

**Fang's POV**

The person neared but I couldn't see their face but I didn't recognize the wings.

The wings were a little smaller than mine and were black with red splats on them. They flew towards me and I jumped to my feet in a fighting position, my wings out to full size.

They landed in front of me and stumbled awkwardly into me. I froze as their arms wrapped around me and….hugged me?

"Oh Fang I can't believe it's you. I've missed you so much" the person cried.

"Ella?" I asked. I pulled back and sure enough the light brown eyes of Ella stared up at me. Before I knew what I was doing I hugged her back, burying my head into her hair. I never knew how much I missed her until now. That Ella had become a part of my life, like a little sister to me.

By now everyone was waking up to see what was going on.

"M-Max?" Ella asked looking at Maya and I got a knot in my stomach just by the name.

"No, I'm Maya, Max's cloned" she said holding out her hand and a bewildered Ella shook it.

"Wait. Ella you have wings!" I said, just noticing.

"Well if you had been around you would have known that you jerk" she said punching me in the arm, quite hard actually. I guess she was mad at me for leaving.

"What, what happened?" I asked, completely freaked out, though I didn't show it, that would be un-Fang like.

"Ok, well Iggy and I got brainwashed by the Doomsday group and then the flock kidnapped Iggy and un-brainwashed him than they did the same to me and then I realised how much I loved everyone and needed wings to be with them so I left in the middle of the night and went back to the facility and got wings grafted on me and then escaped and have been flying around for like days and then I saw the campfire and realised it was you" she said in one breath.

She could have given Nudge a run for her money then.

"Oh" was all I said.

"Yeah" she said still trying to get her breath back.

"So what's been going on with you?" She asked.

I didn't know how to tell her what happened.

"Well these are some friends of mine. Guys this is Ella, Max's sister and my friend" I said to everyone.

"Hi I'm Ratchet. I have super senses" Ratchet said.

"Like Iggy?" Ella frowned.

"No, Ratchet has super sight and hearing, even better than Iggy" I said.

"Wow, that would explain the earphones and sunglasses then" she said and he nodded.

"I'm Kate, I'm super strong" Kate said.

"I'm Star, I'm superfast" Star announced.

"I'm Holden, I'm a starfish" Holden said and we all laughed while Ella just looked confused.

"Holden heals faster than ever imagined, he can take a million bullets and heal within seconds" I said and Ella looked impressed.

"I'm Maya, I'm like your sister but cooler" Maya said and Ella grinned.

"I'm Ella, I have wings and can fly and heal fast and fight and am strong and can breathe under water" Ella said and they nodded impressively. I guess they fixed her up like us.

"Oh, and I can control people's feelings" she added.

Ok, that's new.

**Max's POV**

After we had all calmed down and cleaned up, we started going back to normal.

"Ok, we need a plan" I said after a while.

The others stopped what they were doing and wandered over to where I was sitting.

"Like what?" Nudge sighed and I knew how she felt.

What were we going to do?

"Well we need to find Fang" I said quietly and there was an uneasy silence.

"Umm, what?" Iggy asked.

"I know how it's probably the worst thing to do at the moment, but honestly, we're better together. If we're going to save the world then we need to bring everyone together so we're strong" I said.

"We don't even know where he is" Gazzy said sadly.

"Well we'll just have to find him then" I said.

"How? He could be anywhere" Iggy threw up his hands in frustration.

He was right; it was practically a lost cause. Plus Fang didn't want to be found. He had left his phone here, leaving all contact between us behind.

"Fine, what do you want to do then?" I snapped.

"Well we could go find Ella. Or you're your mum and Jeb" he said and I was surprised that he actually had an answer.

Ella. Mum. Jeb. I felt shamefully guilty as I noticed I seemed too had forgotten all about them.

Once again, we don't know where we're looking" Nudge added.

"Well we know that Ella headed to the institute" Iggy said.

"But it's been like a month" Gazzy said quietly and we all knew what he meant by that. In that time space she could be dead.

"Ella's strong, she'll be fine" Dylan said and I nodded, grateful for his optimism.

"Maybe we should return to the site and see if there's anything there to get any information out of" Nudge suggested and it went quiet again.

No one wanted to go back to that place, but she was right.

"And I can feel around" Nudge added and I remembered she could get vibes off things by touching them.

"Ok, let's go" I said taking a deep breath.

We put coats on and shoes and headed outside.

My eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the brightness and in the sun I could see how pale and sickly everyone looked. I promised myself never to let them get this bad again.

We took off and flew to the site where the fight had taken place, where the doomsday group had almost blown up hundreds of people, where Angel died.

When we landed I shuddered and almost started crying again.

I felt someone's large warm hand slip into mine and I looked up to see Dylan looking down at me with a comforting gaze. Instead of pulling away I sighed and laced my fingers with his and he gave me a reassuring squeeze.

We wandered around, kicking over rocks and scrap metal, but we couldn't find anything.

"Maybe I was wrong, there's nothing he that was worth coming for" Nudge sighed. I rested my hand on her shoulder.

"It was a good idea though" I said and she smiled.

As we went to leave something caught my eye.

There was something lying under some metal and dirt a few meters away from us. I walked over there to get a better look and the others followed.

As I got closer I realized it was a person. My heart jumped, maybe we hadn't managed to get everyone out on time. Maybe they were alive, it was hard to tell from here.

Just then Dylan froze, his mouth open and his face drained of all colour.

"What is it?" I asked but he was frozen.

I remembered he had better eyesight then us and as I neared I knew what had caused him to have that reaction.

The body under the heap was the small body of Angel.


	3. Chapter 3

**Max's POV**

I clawed at the heap trying to get to Angel.

My fingers were bleeding but I didn't notice as I tore away the metal and trash. I noticed the others were beside me, digging with all their might.

I reached her wrist and pulled. Her body shifted towards us and Dylan grabbed her shoulders and Iggy grabbed her sides and they pulled and she came out safety and landed in my arms.

I fell to the ground and held her to me, tears flowing down my face as I half screamed half whimpered. More tears streamed down my face, but this time it was happier ones as I realized she was breathing.

Gazzy was on his knees in front of me, stroking Angel's hair and crying.

"Come on, we'll get her back to the hotel room" Dylan said holding out his arms.

He lifted her up and took off into the sky at rapid speed. We all followed him back to the hotel.

My baby was alive, she was here.

We got back to the room before I even had time to acknowledge what was happening.

I walked into the bathroom where I could hear water running. I saw Dylan bent over the bathtub with Angel in his arms.

Iggy rushed in and started pushing Dylan out. I was confused at first but then Iggy pulled Angel's clothes off. Iggy was blind and he had bathed Angel a lot when we lived in the E shaped house so I knew it was ok.

He put her in the warm bath and started rubbing soothing circles into her arms.

"I'm trying to get the blood flowing properly" he said to no one in particular.

The door opened and Nudge walked in silently.

"Gazzy wants to see her" she told me.

I looked down at my baby in the bath. Her face wasn't peaceful like you'd expect, it was masked with fear and pain. I saw how her body was slender and taller than all time ago at the E house. I thought about Gazzy and how he was slowly filling out slightly and getting taller. They weren't the innocent and sweet kids from there. I didn't want Gazzy to see his sister like this.

"Tell him not yet, but she's in good hands" I said and she nodded and left.

We sat around for hours while Iggy worked his magic on Angel in the bathtub.

I sat in the lounge with Gazzy curled up on my right side, his head resting on my shoulder and Nudge was curled up on my other side, her head in my lap as I absentmindedly stroked her hair.

"What are we going to do next Max?" Gazzy asked.

"Well won't it depend on whether Angel survives or…." Nudge trailed off.

"I think next we should definitely find Fang somehow and tell him what we've found. He'll want to know no matter what happens to her. At least he'll know" I said, choking on my words and I became aware of Dylan standing behind me and I felt safer in his shadow.

We went silent again as we waited.

Finally the bathroom door opened and Iggy walked out and the first thing I noticed was the giant grin on his face.

The second thing I noticed was Angel holding his hand as he led her out.

**Fang's POV**

It was morning and I watched as Ella poked at the dying fire. She'd been sitting there all night, just staring into the flames. She hadn't spoken a word since I told her about Angel's death and everything that happened.

"So where are we going next?" Star asked.

"I don't know" I sighed, feeling defeated.

I had left Max; I had left the flock in their greatest hour of need. I tried to justify my leaving by thinking I was leaving to go complete some great mission to help save the world, but honestly I had no idea what I was doing.

Truthfully I had left because I just wanted to get away from the pain and the pain I had caused. The pain of losing Angel, the pain I had caused for leaving in the first place, the pain I had caused for rubbing Maya in Max's face, the pain I saw in Max's eyes everytime I looked at her, the pain of seeing her and Dylan together.

There was too much pain. I had runaway from my problems.

I looked over at Ella. She was trying to hide it, but I could see she was distraught by Angel's death.

Her brown hair fell over her eyes and covered her face.

I noticed the similarities between her and Max. The same coloured skin, the same soft cheekbones, the same cute button nose. And I knew that much to Max's disagreement, Max and Ella were alike in personality. Deep down Max had that same spark of kindness and a good heart, the only difference is over the years Max had wrapped hers up in hostility and her tough act, which wasn't really an act.

And I also knew if Ella was this distraught over Angel who she'd only known for a bit less than a year, then Max would be a million times worse. And I had left her in that state, alone.

"We need to find Max and the other flock" I spoke up.

"Are you kidding me?" Ratchet threw up his hands in frustration.

"They could be anywhere" Holden sighed.

"Well I think they should know about Ella" I said, using Ella's presence as a backup story.

"And I think you should go grovel on your knees her about leaving her, twice" Ella said, seeing right through my cover-up.

"But you're missing the point, they could be anywhere" Ratchet said.

"If I know Max, she'll still be at the hotel that you told me about" Ella said.

"How do you gather that?" I asked.

"Well Max tends to want to stay in one place and wallow in grief when something big has happened. She stayed at our place for ages depressed, and that's just because you left. Imagine what she's going to be like now" Ella said.

You know, Ella is really smart.

"The hotel it is" I nodded and she grinned as we headed back the way we came.


	4. Chapter 4

Max's POV

Angel hadn't been given time to speak. For the past half an hour she had been passed around from person to person, suffocated in hugs, drowned in tears and deafened by sobs.

Eventually we managed to calm down, we all sat on the floor gathered around together as if the world no longer existed. Angel sat between my legs and I stroked her hair that was now clean and dirt and blood free.

Gazzy's head lay in Angel's lap and she ran her fingers through his spiky hair as his tears were drying. Her other hand held Nudge's hand while she kept mumbling words under her breath in happiness. Her foot brushed against Iggy's leg and he smiled to himself. Dylan sat next to me, near Gazzy, one hand on my knee, the other absent-mindedly playing with the feathers on Angel's back that were slightly open. We could have sat there forever, consumed by our own happiness.

The thought of Fang nagged in the back of my head, but I refused to let him ruin this moment for me. I knew he needed to know she was alive, but apart of me wanted him to suffer in pain like I had to, for a little while at least. I knew the pain of loosing a sibling was different to the love of your life leaving you, but I guess I was still bitter.

"Max, I don't want to die" Angel said suddenly.

"What?" I asked in shock.

"I thought I was going to die. It was so cold Max. I was all alone" She said quietly and I heard Gazzy sob quietly.

"You will never be alone again. I won't let it happen" I told her.

"Ok Max" she said simply as if she knew if I had said it then it would be true. I felt I had gotten my baby back. She was no longer evil and determined to take over. She was my angel.

**Fang's POV**

I walked up the stairs. They seemed to go on forever, and each step felt like a trip through a desert.

"Move faster" Kate sighed in frustration and I realised I was going so slow I had almost stopped walking entirely.

"Give the guy a break. I can hear his heart pounding. He is only about to walk into a room of people who hate him including the girl he had ditched twice, once after the death of their sister. Plus his replacement, superman and the rest of his betrayed family" Ratchet mused annoyingly and I heard a thump and squeal only to see Ella had pushed him down the flight of steps.

"Fang you're next if you don't move your ass. I haven't seen them in forever. Now move!" She cried and my feet suddenly began climbing the stairs faster.

We got to the door and my heart skipped a beat and I felt sick. I didn't know what I was going to find once I walked in here. The man at the front desk had told us they were still staying here, after a bit of persuasion.

I tried to decided if I should knock or just walk in. I put my hand on the handle but it was locked. So slowly, with slightly shaking hands, I curled my hand into a fist and knocked on the door.

**Max's POV**

A knock at the door ruined the pure bliss we were going for. Nudge untangled herself from us and got up to open the door and I hoped whoever it was she punched, hard.

I heard the door open and a scream came from Nudge, then suddenly there was a thump and a low omph sound. I got up from my stop and rushed to the door. Only to see Fang standing there. His hand covering his bleeding nose.

"Max" He said softly as my jaw swung open.


End file.
